Tatort, Germany's Top-Rated and Longest-Running Crime Drama, Celebrates 40 Years on the Air

Variety has an article this morning on Germany's top-rated and longest-running crime drama, Tatort (English title: Crime Scene).

Premiering in November, 1970, the series has aired 781 episodes and featured 102 detectives (to date). Each of the 16 German state TV channels that together form broadcast network ARD, plus ORF in Austria, produces its own episodes, starring its own police inspector (or team of inspectors).

"We were actually quite relieved that we made it through to the end of the first season," says Gunther Witte, who created Tatort and admits he never dreamed it would last 40 years.

The basic formula -- and even the opening credits -- for the series has remained the same since the start. The focus is on the detectives, and often their own foibles, and the stories are uniquely German with almost no action and rarely even a shot fired. The cops rely on their brains or the blunders of the criminals to get their man.